Tuesday, July 9, 2024
What Do You See?
Psa. 123:1b   O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
 
            The blinders have been removed (see yesterday’s meditation). Our eyes can now see more as our peripheral vision is expanded. We see what’s truly in this world—the good, the bad, and the ugly. We see and experience the unbelieving world’s contempt and scorn against Christ Jesus and His Church. The Christian is on the receiving end of this as we want to live by God’s law and word in our life. There are Christians who are thrown in jail simply because they believe and stand for the sanctify of all life—regardless of color. There are Christians around the world who are undergoing severe persecutions, tortures, and even death sentences simply because they follow Christ Jesus and will not renounce and reject Christ Jesus.
            When the Christian laments derision and contempt in his life, there’s no other direction to look except for up. When the Christian looks up, he sees God in His rightful place. He is enthroned in the Heavens.[1]
            So, where is God enthroned? Well, as St. Paul tells us in 2Corinthians 12, God is enthroned in the third heaven. In ancient times people understood this as the highest of heaven, the heaven of heavens. There’s nothing beyond this, and this is the place reserved only for God, from whence He reigns and rules over His whole Creation.
            No matter what we go through and experience in this life, including ridicule and contempt against Christ and the Christian faith, it doesn’t go unnoticed by God. We pray to Him to something about it. We wonder why He doesn’t act. We plead for help and assistance, especially when ‘I’ am on the receiving end.
            God Who is enthroned in the highest heaven has done something about it. He put flesh on Himself and was enthroned in the manger. God became one of us in order to save us from ourselves. God’s Christ was enthroned on the cross of Calvary and was crowned with the lowest crown possible—the crown of thorns of our sins with His palace being death and a tomb.
            Three days later Jesus came back to life, never to die again. He has resumed His rightful place on His throne in the highest of heavens, the heaven of heavens. And this One who is enthroned above is going to return one day.
            Until that Day, King Jesus continues to come to His subjects who live in this world filled with derision and contempt against Him. He comes to us in a very real way through His Word and Sacrament. He moves our eyes in the right direction.


[1] When we read and pray the psalms, we should slow down in our reading and meditate on what’s in that particular psalm. For instance, Psalms 121 and 123 begin in similar ways by lifting up one’s eyes. In Psalm 121 the psalmist lifts up his eyes to the hills. His help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. The psalm’s focus is on God as Creator. In Psalm 123 the psalmist lifts up his eyes and sees this very same God enthroned in heaven. The focus of Psalm 123 is God as the Ruler over all other rulers and kingdoms.